Light-Cone Friedel Oscillations: a Window into van Hove Superconductivity

Abstract

Van Hove (vH) singularities can enhance superconductivity by generating a large pairing susceptibility. Yet, it remains challenging to experimentally establish whether pairing really occurs near these points. We show that the saddle-point dispersion near a vH point gives rise to a `light-cone' vH-selective behavior of Friedel oscillations, which is drastically different from the familiar concentric circles. Each vH point maps onto its own real-space light-cone sector, allowing STM around a single impurity to measure whether---and how strongly---that saddle-point quasiparticle sector is gapped. A superconducting gap near vH points suppresses the oscillations in the directions corresponding to peaks in the gap function angular dependence, a behavior that provides a signature of vH-related pairing at STM-accessible length scales. This STM protocol, targeting vH superconductivity, is capable of determining whether superconducting pairing emerges near the vH points or elsewhere on the Fermi surface.